This page contains a link to a .pdf file with the grade summaries for the semester. Please note: the grades are listed by "Student Identifier." To get your unique student identifier, you must login to attila** (from your own login ID!) and execute the RSID shell script in my sbin directory with your Social Security Number an argument. The (current) path to that file is:

/home/ece/ece/bmcnair/sbin/RSID

So, if your SSAN is 123-45-6789, you would execute:

/home/ece/ece/bmcnair/sbin/RSID 123456789

Note that there are no spaces or dashes in the parameter. The command will return a 5 digit number, which is your "Student Identifier" for the class.

FYI: the shell executes a command called cipher, which is an implentation of the Data Encryption Standard. Your email address is used as the message to encipher and your SSAN is used to generate an encryption key. While the DES has been broken with enough hardware, time, and data, this 5 digit identifier is much more secure than using a piece of your SSAN as a student ID. Since the Student Identifier is only a piece of the enciphered string, someone with complete knowledge of the process would still have a lot of potential SSANs to try to match a Student Identifier.

** I know that attila will be decomissioned as Stevens moves mail accounts, etc. to nexus. When this happens (hopefully, after you have found your Student Identifier for this course) I will move the function to another Unix or linux machine.

Note: not having access to anyone else's login, this shell has not been tested to verify it can be executed under all circumstances. If you have difficulty generating a Student Identifier that matches one on the list, please let me know so I can debug your problem. Please remember that you MUST execute the shell from your own login - if you try it from someone else's login, you will get a student identifier, just not your own.

Note: Since this process is creating a hash of the input information, there is the potential for a collision - multiple inputs generating the same output. This is equivalent to the so-called "Birthday Paradox" - the high probability that, in a group of ~30 or more people, at least one pair will share the same birthday. In a group of 1000 students, what is the probability that at least one pair will share the same, seemingly random, 5 digit identifier? That's an exercise for the student. The probability is larger than you probably expect. Fortunately, we don't have 1000 students in the same class and the probability of a collision for even 150 students is small enough. If we had a collision, there would be a very simple way of dealing with it - any suggestions?

This material is provided for the specific use of students enrolled in EE/CpE 345 and for general research purposes only. Deep linking to this page or subsequent pages is permitted, as long as proper attribution of the source is provided. Electronic or other duplication of this material without prior permission is prohibited.

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